Hacking Hate dokumentär av Simon Klose om Researchgruppens My Vingren

From the very beginning, I had no expectations that Hacking Hate would deliver anything insightful, and unfortunately, it still managed to fall short. I only watched it to confirm my suspicions that this so-called "documentary" would be a trainwreck-and it didn't disappoint in that regard. This was a complete failure on every level, an exercise in amateurish storytelling and a profound misunderstanding of the topic it claims to address.

The subject of hate speech and online toxicity is undoubtedly important, but it's also a subject that demands careful research, thoughtful analysis, and a competent narrator. This documentary lacks all of these. From the opening scenes, it's clear that the woman leading this project has no idea what she's talking about. Instead of presenting a coherent or nuanced argument, she stumbles through the topic with oversimplifications, cliched rhetoric, and an embarrassing reliance on her own subjective opinions.

The documentary essentially revolves around her fixation on social media platforms as the root of all hate. While there is some truth to the idea that platforms like Facebook and Twitter play a role in amplifying toxic content, her "analysis" never goes beyond surface-level observations. She blames algorithms and user behavior without bothering to explore the deeper societal, political, or psychological factors that fuel hate speech. Watching her oversimplify such a complex issue was frustrating, to say the least.

What makes this worse is her apparent unwillingness to engage with credible experts or alternative perspectives. The interviews she includes feel cherry-picked to support her narrative, and even those are so shallow that they add almost nothing of value. At no point does she attempt to challenge her own views or provide any real insight into the limitations of her so-called solutions. Instead, she rambles on about how banning accounts and reporting posts will somehow solve the problem. It's naive, reductive, and downright insulting to the intelligence of her audience.

The production quality is equally bad. The visuals are repetitive and uninspired, with the filmmaker spending an inordinate amount of time staring at her laptop or delivering monologues that feel more like a personal rant than an actual documentary. The overly dramatic music, clearly intended to emphasize the "seriousness" of the subject, only serves to highlight how empty and performative the content truly is.

One of the most laughable moments comes when she conducts a "social experiment" to show how algorithms lead people into hateful content. She creates a fake account, follows some controversial pages, and then acts surprised when inflammatory posts start filling her feed. This painfully obvious experiment is presented as groundbreaking insight, as though viewers aren't already aware of how algorithms work. It's a perfect encapsulation of how simplistic and out-of-touch this documentary is.

By the end of Hacking Hate, I wasn't just disappointed-I was annoyed. The solutions she offers are not only oversimplified but completely disconnected from the larger systemic and cultural issues that perpetuate hate speech. Suggestions like "report more posts" or "be more empathetic" might sound nice, but they're laughably ineffective when dealing with the scale and complexity of online hate.

I went into this documentary expecting a failure, and that's exactly what I got. There was nothing new, insightful, or thought-provoking here-just a poorly executed attempt at tackling an important issue. If anything, it felt like an excuse for the filmmaker to present her personal grievances under the guise of journalism.

If you're genuinely interested in understanding the dynamics of online hate and how to combat it, look elsewhere. There are far better resources out there that approach the subject with the depth and seriousness it deserves. Hacking Hate is a waste of time, an amateurish mess that deserves its 1/10 rating. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.